I was touring a house last weekend which had this massive RPTV w/ a really nice picture which ended up being the new Sony Qualia. I didn't know how cool the Qualia was at the time until another friend of mine brought up that he was thinking of buying a new TV and the Qualia was at the top of his list. Had I known how impressive this set was I would have definately checked it out more! Even in the minute or so I got to view the Qualia it was obvious the set needed some serious picture control tweaking before it looked phenomenal.

I've had great luck w/ Sony TVs. My nearly 6 year old Sony 53" 4:3 53XBR300 RPTV has really lasted the test of time ($4000 at the time); it is still excellent. The picture display looks better than most HDTV RPTV sets sold in stores (other than really high end). This is mostly due to the fact that I had it ISF hand tuned a few years back and then also added an external iScan HD scaler (~$1000) last year to replace Sony's original DRC (Digital Reality Creation) internal scalar.

My Sony supports several HDTV resolutions up 1040i; I run all 16:9 video at 540p via the iScan which looks amazing and 4:3 at 480p full screen. The best picture comes from the HDTV channels via my Comcast digital box (also upscaled by the iScan) and the results are stunning.

My luck w/ Sony video products has been great. Fortunately I don't need a new TV or I'd probably be crazy enough to buy the Qualia.